Overstretched Jakarta&#39;s future as Indonesia&#39;s capital is in doubt

Can Indonesia's capital be made more livable ? or must it be moved?

Jakarta is so polluted and overpopulated that people are beginning to think it has reached saturation point. Some see the capital of Indonesia as the absolute opposite of harmonious development, a caricature of the unbearable metropolis with all the ills of urban life in emerging countries. It is the world's largest city without an underground transport system. Some 9.6 million reside here but during the day the population rises by almost a third, with the influx of 3 million people from the suburbs. Road traffic moves at an average speed of 13km/h and, according to some statistics, you can easily spend three or four hours a day gridlocked. The congestion costs around $2.5bn a year in lost production.

Indonesia's president, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, recently suggested the only solution was to move the capital, an idea first aired by President Sukarno, who led the country to independence in 1945. The most ambitious project would involve moving the presidency, civil service, government, parliament and all the national institutions from the island of Java, on which Jakarta stands, to the Indonesian part of Borneo, about 1,000km to the north-east. According to Velix Wanggai, the president's special adviser on regional development, this big idea, which would take about a generation to realise, is just one of the available options.

Yudhoyono has asked his team to consider three possible scenarios for saving Jakarta. Under the first, the government would stay put and confront the challenge of uncontrolled urbanisation. It would try to improve the existing situation, rather than turning its back on the problem. Under the second, only the central government would move out, either elsewhere on Java or to Kalimantan, Borneo. Jakarta would remain the business and administrative capital, as part of the slow and painful devolution process currently under way.

The third and most radical solution would be to transfer all the capital's key attributes to Palangkaraya, the main town of Kalimantan province, part of which is still covered by jungle. For the time being, Wanggai says, the decision is still wide open but his smile suggests that he, and maybe his boss, prefer the third scenario ? however far-fetched it may seem.

"Jakarta has reached the limits of what it can absorb. There is just no more space for urban development. This situation has a high social, economic and psychological cost," says Sonny Keraf, a professor of philosophy and former environment minister under Abdurrahman Wahid, president from 1999 to 2001. Andrinof Chanagio, a professor of political and social science at Universitas Indonesia, endorses this view: "If a political decision isn't taken in time, we will be heading straight for a major social explosion."

The possibility of moving the capital has prompted debate and controversy. Opponents laugh at the idea, arguing that the notion of reinventing a symbol of power on virgin territory would be more appropriate for an authoritarian regime, which Indonesia no longer is.

Marco Kusumawijaya, a planner and founder of Rujak, a non-government organisation advocating a sustainable future for cities and regions, condemns the cliches associated with Jakarta. "It's true the population has increased, but it is quite wrong to say the urban fabric is denser. In fact, it's the opposite: rising population goes with urban sprawl and more suburbs," he says. "It is also wrong to claim there are too many cars per capita. In Jakarta there are 250 cars per 1,000 people, compared with 800 in the United States. The real problem is that people use their cars too often in one day because of the shortcomings of the transit system."

He admits there are no easy answers. Plans to build a monorail link and a subway system are still being discussed. In 2009 Japan's international co-operation agency gave the go-ahead for a loan at preferential rates to fund much of the subway. Priority bus lanes have also been laid out along main roads, but car drivers often disregard the rules.

Kusumawijaya does not believe the president's projects will be enough to make Jakarta liveable. "The bus lanes are a good idea, but badly managed," he says. "The monorail will only serve the city centre, doing nothing to help people in the suburbs, and the subway will not be finished before 2016."

If, as the experts suggest, the answer is to improve the existing city rather than moving into the jungle, incentives will be needed to draw the middle classes back into the city centre. Just as elsewhere, high rents have driven many away ? and the proliferation of lavish shopping malls has fuelled property speculation.

"We have to rethink the way we use land, encourage people to move back and stop building tower blocks," Kusumawijaya says. "We must combat the idea that Jakarta is no longer worth bothering with."

This article first appeared in Le Monde

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